25

What Time Is It?

This book has possibly the longest title of any book I’ve ever read. The full title is: “What Time Is It? You Mean Now? – Advice for Life from the Zennest Master of Them All” by Yogi Berra with Dave Kaplan.

You all know who Yogi Berra is. I’m not sure if “Dave Kaplan” is the guy on local TV with a Bulldog named “Deep Dish”.

The book is presented as a series of soliloquies by Yogi. Since Mr. Berra is a man of few words, I’m thinking maybe these were two-way conversations, and Mr. Kaplan’s comments were simply edited out. Regardless of how it occurred, Yogi’s discourses are great.

There are 26 chapters. Here are some of the headings:
– “Baseball’s Different Today, But It Isn’t”
– “It Gets Late Early Out There”
– “Little Things Are Big”
– “The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be”

I enjoyed reading every sentence of every chapter in the book. But some sentences jumped out at me. I’m sure that when you read the book, other sentences will jump out at you. Following are some of my favorites:

– You are what you think; maybe that’s why some people need attitude adjustments.
– There are lots of things in life you can’t control, but how you respond to those things is the one thing you can control.
– That’s how I kept myself positive, by not getting all negative.
– …we were lost, but at least we were making good time.
– And the World Series shouldn’t always be at night–they’re losing young fans.
– I did tell Carm, though, that she ought to put on my tombstone, “It’s over.”
– One time, though, she did ask me where I should be buried….I told Carm, “I don’t know, just surprise me.”
– You can get old pretty young if you don’t take care of yourself.
– Exercise is the best medicine, unless you’re really sick and need something else.
– …remaining active helps you remain active.
– My biggest fear is probably death; I know I’m going to die, but I don’t especially want to be there when it happens.
– I told him that he had to have kids, it’s the best thing for a family.
– Casey used to say that most games are lost, not won….
– You can’t teach power and speed, but you can teach hustling and proper technique.
– …because that’s the beauty of New York: Like someone said, “It’s the greatest city in the world – you got a problem with that?”
– I think the biggest regrets in life are missed opportunities, but you can’t get pessimistic over things that should’ve been or you’ll just go into a depression.
– We were always taught to be gracious winners and graceful losers…
– Like Casey used to say, “It’s easy to get the players. Getting ‘em to play together, that’s the hard part.”
– You say you’re going to be there at five o’clock, you better be there at five o’clock no matter what time it is.
– Some people have a zest for life, which usually means they’re happier than most people. Some have a zest for food, which likely means they’re heavier, unless they watch their weight.
– Whether you love what you do or you do what you love, you’re better off enjoying your life while you can, because you’ll be dead for a long time and it doesn’t sound like much fun.

This book consists of Yogi Berra waxing philosophic, and is full of wisdom, advice and humor. I recommend it highly to everyone. I mean everybody.